#air you greivances

[cherryspiders]

I’ve rewritten this many times but I think simple is best: I enjoyed the cr3 finale and I think the cast deserve to have that happy ending, narrative or whatever be damned. Some of them irl had to evacuate due to the fires and while I understand the people upset by the lack of narrative weight (which is a term I’ve seen being thrown around) I just never saw a universe where Matt (who notoriously loves his friends) would’ve ever done something different than allow his friends to have their characters have their happy (or desired) endings. I don’t want to diminish anyone’s feelings, and I think a lot of the constructive criticism is actually very healthy to express. But god, truth be told, there’s been a lot of rancid negativity in the fandom as of late and with this finale people are lashing out and while that’s a testament to just how much people cared about Bells Hells and their story I honestly think some people just need to sit down and reflect before they type. I know there’s quite a few people who hate to hear it as an excuse but guys, it’s their game. And I think with all of the awful things happening in LA with the fires I think they deserve that happy ending. Don’t forget to be kind.

[manda-kat]

LISTEN! CHRISTIAN MEDIA DOESN'T WORK IF IT IS MADE OUT OF SPITE FOR THE LACK OF MEDIA FOR US TO ENJOY! YOU NEED TO ACTUALLY WANT TO MAKE SOMETHING, NOT JUST AIR YOUR GREIVANCES ABOUT NOT HAVING ANYTHING YOU LIKE! STOP IT! THEY MAKE FUN OF US WHEN WE DO THIS! PLEASE!

[vivitur-moritur]

you know what, i thought i’d be less upset after posting this and a couple hours, and actually no, i haven’t calmed down much. @lelesbean, this is about you, you hypocritical bastard.

explaining to my friend the entirety of the QiJiu tragedy (PIDW canon) and I get to the point where I dramatically say and then YQY fucking dies, and they just nodded and said mhm…

It was at that moment that I realized that “even tho i’m on my phone i’m still listening” was a fucking LIE. You won’t even let me draw when play dnd, (an auditory, non-visual game). And I would understand, it’s totally fair to want someone’s undivided attention, especially when it’s about something one cares about.

But the thing is, you drew the whole time we were WATCHING Heaven Official’s Blessing. An action that requires your EYES, the same as drawing.

And now you decide that you’d rather be on your phone than listen to me. I understand a lot of people don’t like to hear me rant about my interests. I can get loud and over-excited, and to be honest, you probably care very little about my favourite doomed romance. But godDAMN, even my dear twin, who cares very little about offending me, has the tact to say hey, Mori, I understand you’re excited about this but I don’t have the time/interest right now to listen to you about it.

And I say okay, dear twin! And I’m a little sad, yes, but it is fucking devastating to get to the most dramatic part of my story, and you say mhm. And I ask you if you were listening, and you say yes. And I ask you what happened, what did I just say, and you say you forgot. And I say you weren’t listening, and you say you were, and some other shit I can’t remember because it made no sense, and at least everyone else who has ever ignored me has at least had the guts to say it to my face, rather than coming up with the worst fucking lie I have ever heard.

[korayvi]

Reborn hunger games sim thing

long post so theres a see more

cw for murder, violence, suicide, betrayal ect.

good do see things are eventful already. rip bozo

First murder and Amaria has resolved the plot

what the hell ame

aww thanks saphira :)

i would not infact like to be hunted by these 3

hardy just doesen't have the gamer mindset

awwwww

oh my god someone stop her she did this to ZEL too

dude what the fuuuuck where's saphira when you need her (she's in a cave)

hell yeah. there's only room for one gamer in this tournament

?????? Radomus??????

he's in his villain arc someone stop him

?????????? I DO NOT CONSENT TO THIS

well there go my hopes.

Titania i would not trust him he probably poisoned you or something

Amaria's resolving the entire team meteor problem

Is nothing sacred to you? you monster.

they're looking for sigmund

she tried her best don't be rude titania

heather and radomus are responsible for like half the deaths and Luna's just using this to air her own greivances

he's so silly like that

canon

rest in peace bestie

someone stop this crazy madman

Luna didn't mind the murder but stealing from her was crossing a line

saphira i get what you're going through but also you still have (1) sister left to comfotrt. good on you tita-

oh no she just wanted the double kill huh

i'd watch Noel's minecraft letsplay

after another swift murder Titania is our winner! With Paul Clark as our biggest loser. Radomus get the trophy for most murders at 4

[winterbeheaded]

i think its great that youre kinda allowing people the space to air their greivances with bimother/jotales because i think a lot of people either just dont want the backlash (me included) and want to have a peaceful time on this hellsite but like. kudos to you genuinely lmao and i do have something to say and that is that all of that persons friends dickriding and claiming positivity is sooo funny considering tumblr user roznrot claimed sending anons is the same as sexual assault and claimed "oh so women shouldnt speak up when catcalled?" as if these two things are the same. and their friend evietales i sent the ask to didnt then post the one that i made several good points in because they couldnt defend themselves. and i think people are wayyyy too quick to say that when someone is doing something wrong you should be "nice" to them. no, the nice thing is you BEING TOLD in whatever capacity that person thinks necessary.

.

[catboy-sinister]

So I've been doing some deep thinking for a bit. And by a bit, I mean literally over a year. But I think that this kind of thing deserves some deep introspection. Pondering, if you will. And I wanted to share this with my echo chamber of darling mutuals because I've never really talked about who I am on this blog. I plan to stick to that for the most part by the way.

Now for the focus of this post: Why do I like Mister Sinister so much?

Rather dramatic introduction for that, I know. But really, I've been doing some deep digging to understand why I'm drawn to this POS out of countless characters from countless forms of media.

Firstly, though: there are plenty of problematic elements to Sinister... in general. I could make a whole longpost airing out my greivances over the writing of the Weapon X era in general, but that's not what this post is about. I bring this up to state: I do not condone any of Sinister's actions, or his beliefs regarding eugenics. This should be a no-brainer, but there are plenty of nobrainers running around this website. I digress.

I think there are several elements that draw me to him. First off, the surface level characteristics. He's always been a bitch, no matter what incarnation, and I find that hilarious. To the flamboyant Gillen-Krakoa bitchiness, to the subtle/not-so-subtle bitchiness of even his Claremont days. His unapolagetic creepass is just a delight.

His design is also *chef's kiss*. Dr. Frank N. Furter went through a shredder. The cape? Love it. The diamond motif? Love it. The slutty thigh high boots? Love it. Victorian aesthetic? Love it. Victorian aesthetic while simultaneosly being a massive slut??? Incredible. Sign me up. His pasty bitchass has me kicking my feet, I'll admit it.

Sinister was also a major villain of my favorite media of X-men, the Animated Series. (And he was just as bitchy!) I have the Phalanx Episodes on repeat, I tell you. Funny enough, I thought he was annoying at first, but upon rewatching I had the oh...oh moment. (Mister Sinister turned me transgender pass it on)

He presents some interesting politics too. I don't think this is the post to dive into that, though. I've touched on it a bit before.

But apart from the fun stuff, I need to acknowledge the not fun stuff that drew me to him over time on a more emotional level. Now I'll actually talk about myself, as in Apollo, not just catboy-sinister (lmao).

All my life, I've struggled with emotion. As in, I feel emotion a lot less deeply than other people. Feeling something intensely only comes along once every few months. Most of my days are just spent kind of... numb? Checked out? It's hard to describe. But basically, I just really don't feel stuff.

Sinister was transformed by Apocalypse, which took his regrets, morality, grief, etc. Nowadays he expresses all sorts of emotion, but that wasn't the case before. Before, and especially in Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix (origin story), his entire emotional range was wiped or drastically reduced. And lowkey, I felt that? There are plenty of heroes/antiheroes/villains written as manly men who don't need emotion or morals... but that's not something I can project on. A bitchy Victorian themed scientist, though? That checks a box.

Sinister is also just kind of unsettling to a lot of characters in the world. Which honestly, I can relate to. I've literally been told I'm unsettling, lol, and stuff similar to that but a lot less nice. Even though I hadn't done anything.

During my youth, I never really fit in, never made genuine friends who I had a genuine connection with. My friends had always thought we had a connection, but I think differently. In fact, I think I can say that I've never made a genuine connection with someone before. Sounds sad when I say it, but I'm never really lonely. I just don't need that connection. I think Shithead Essex feels the same? He never seems to get lonely either, I'd say.

If I'm honest, it's kind of hard to feel human sometimes. I wonder what I'm missing out on a lot, which I'm sure Sinister never did, because he already experienced that. I feel detached a lot of the time. But I don't feel empty. I have hobbies and interests, likes and dislikes. I just don't feel things like other people do, or connect to them. Don't worry, the psych appointment is coming up in June (it was moved back).

The hardest thing to talk about is our similar grief. I won't talk about what I'm going through, because frankly I don't want to, but I can describe it. I'll be blunt. I know the feeling of watching someone immediately close to you slowly die as you can do nothing about it. So you detach yourself, preferring to feel nothing at all. There is nothing you can do about it, you feel helpless and alone. Essex was a doctor, I am not, but we both went through this similarly, diving into academic work and shutting ourselves off from the world. Of course, his 'academic work' was far more egregious than mine, but the baseline simularity is there.

There's really not a way to wrap this all in a neat bow. It's messy, but I'm a messy bitch, and so is Sinister. I think my final thoughts will be this: you don't NEED a deep, introspective reason to like something. It's nice to have it. It's healthy to do some good introspection from time to time, and critically think about why you like something. But sometimes you just like to look at the sky, or paint, or watch movies. A simple life is an equally fulfilling one, in my opinion. Or look deep in your soul to find WHY you like the sky and painting and movies.

It's up to you.

[bigthingsforeverintheworks]

ok despite repeatedly threatening uh. myself? i never actually properly aired my greivances about high school dances and i'm on a misanthropic streak so.

first off the music. yes i am a hippie and for a good bit i was like "man this set list would've been better if it was xanthan gun - patricia taxxon" but now that i've become more of a music hippie i can confidently say that like. idk play daft punk; kate bush; carly rae jepsen lcd soundsystem. Like there is a tendency to just play whatever's popular without any regard for the danceability (though there is a pretty big subset of dance pop i don't particularly like but w/e)

probably the biggest issue with more niche stuff is the lyrics like yeah you probably shouldn't have just like anything political however old songs are like significantly sneakier and people just don't notice like if there's anything that goes too far beyond "we hanging out" it's bad

i also think there's a subset of songs that are too popular that it's just kind of weird (everybody wants to rule the world was on a setlist, i mean not too danceable regardless but say billie jean omg also meme songs fucking like i get this is probably a niche thing but i cannot take any song featured in neil cicierega's mouth albums seriously

as for what danceability means i mean it's mostly down to the rhythm i reckon but also it should be just like upbeat (slow dances are their own beast) and that is partially a lyrics thing too like i don't think i want it that way is a slowdance uh bad example that's probably my top 5 least favorite songs (for those wondering it's like. pretty fly for a nice guy. and that one song that my ex* played or something i can't remember it) but like good 4 u is... i mean it's arguably cathartic but it's quite angsty idk can't speak to it i didn't even properly date my ex* and wish them no ills also not to mention she's kind of wrong uh oh cancel alert um actually it's normal and good for people to heal from bad relationships (ok i mean it depends on the situation but like if you break up with someone it seems?? reasonable to just go no contact at least for a while (that is what happened in my case and as a cold aromantic i think you should just have other support systems etc.) also that song's a good example because you're like kind of vibing (at least during the chorus like the intro's there i guess) and then you're like "like a damn sociopath" and it's like "umm i don't think that's very nice to anyone involved can we not stigmatize sociopathy" and i mean yes most people probably don't have the uh. liberal brainrot? but still.

and then there's the matter of how i dance. I do in theory know how to swing dance (i'm pretty sure most people at my dances were doing it half as fast though that could just be how waltzes work?) but my preferred style of dancing is just moving my feet to the rhythm but like in a way that makes it become jumping. I don't know what to do with my arms. It's a form of energy release in essence; i believe my earliest memory of doing this as a kid was to cotton-eye joe which aside from probably being racist segues into my next point: line dances suck so bad (and like anything else with a canonical dance looking at you YMCA)

like i mean i generally view dances as aform of creativity output but when you're like "um actually this is how you dance to this song" i am ggoing to fucking kill you and it's not really that fun they're always vaguely complicated which yes would be a good solution to not knowing how you're supposed to dance (never explained btw) if not for the fact that it's only really applicable to this one song. what you expect me to whip a lasso in the air for fun? no i am doing it because the chains bind me to your stupid game. and like there's no fun social energy to it you're just like forced to be there and make sure you're in the right space.

Because i was kind of lying earlier like I think dances are creative but they're also intensely social like you know that contrapoints video that definitely said something about like dances in twilight or smth i mean the lighting is too light and they all care about it being school so it's not reaching like peak potential but it seems like one of those cool friendship things i don't have the friendship points with anyone to properly do especially slow dances (though i'd guess I don't do too well with those anyways) and in that setting it's kind of weird to just do your own thing like my fucking cringe instincts will get me especially when there's so many people just standing there and <school-specific details>

but like it's kind of hard not to view a school dance as a performance even if my school's culture around school dances was significantly less romantic like why not just stay home and dance by yourself

i do think unironically there should be more resources about how to dance where's the derek guy of dancing but not ballroom dancing. In my experience the hardest part is getting into the rhythm because once i lock in i can't really lock out

i could probably gripe more about the set lists i mean flow tends to be ehhh at best; there's also really an issue of just like there's only so many songs you can fit into a school dance so when one of them's bad or even a few of them... i do really think there's a tendency for either popularity or personal preference to outweigh being a good dance song

also probably issue that i am not in a dress but that's honestly like concern number 50

[madeofspite-and-memes]

and was it pretty whilst it burned

tw: violence, betrayal (sorry its longer than i meant it to be)

Villan wasn't one to hide. they weren't sly or cunning, they prefered open, honest fights, to air their greivances whilst shouting passionatly about idealism or whatever. villan prefered to be brash, abrasive and destructive.

hero was cunning and sly. half of everything they said was a lie. they lied and tricked, decieved and manipulated to get what they needed to win. eventually people caught on, that you couldn't trust a word they said, people were more skeptical, but hero caught on too, using their skeptisism to get what they wanted. no one out-witted hero. eventually people accepted it, hero always won, always saved the day, who cared if you couldn't trust a word out their mouth? you could trust them to do the right thing.

villan found hero facinating. at first they assumed they had a crush on their conniving nemesis, but really it was awe, how did that powerless slip of a person bend the city to their will? how did they defeat their every plan? and that the hero gained all these resourses - just to use them on the villan!

...okay maybe it was a crush.

the villan couldn't help it, they tried everything not to fall for the heros manipulation, but they were so very convincing. one time the hero convinced villan that they had gone absolutley bathsit crazy, that they had a nuke aimed at the city and was willing to kill everyone just to ensure the villans death if they didn't surrender! of course it had all been lies, crazy desperate lies. but fuck, they were so convincing. the next time, when hero said they had four army hericopters filled to the brim with armed men ready to attack, the villan hadn't believed them, yet lo and behold the armed battalion that hero had somehow convinced the military to moblize, just to make them stand down. how on earth do you fight that insanity!

how on earth do you not fall for that insanity?

villan had tried to find their elusive hero, but no. nothing. hero fought with their hair - if they had any - pinned back under a hood, a full face mask sewn onto their shirt so it couldn't be ripped of in a battle, and they even had contact lenses. CONTACT LENSES. their eyes shone unnatural golden every time they faced one another. villan had considered that they were in fact natural just unique, but no, one time a contact fell out, but hero had pulled the hood over their face and vanished before they could see the real colour. so they had tried tracking whoever brought the contacts, because really not many people can be in the market for golden eyes. yet upon investigation it became clear that someone was stealing them out of the warehouse.

so that left villan to scour the few interveiws hero had been wrangled into- masked of course. but those were all lies to. counting all their stories they had; dead parents, shitty parents, no idea what happened to their parents, wonderful parents hidden safely halfway across the world, adoptive parents and the same went for everything else. so many lies that even if the truth was in their somewhere, they could never discern it.

until one night they got a wonderful surprise.

it had been a shitty day, their latest plan was stupid, their lair was a mess and they had run out of food two days ago but had forgotten to get more. so when three aggressive knocks assaulted their door in turn it was all they could do not to groan. they were not prepared for the beautiful sight at the door.

three men in dark suits carrying a limp hero between them. the heros head was lolling, knocked out or drugged they assumed. the three men had swiftly informed them that they worked for the government and was offering their nemesis as a peace offering. villan had signed a piece of paper that the men had called a peace treaty but villan didn't care for sticking to it so all it really was was a piece of paper. the hero had then been deposited in their arms and the men had left.

villan carried hero to their sofa and set about cutting away the mask. hero somewhat came to during the process but not enough to put up a fight. once villan cut away the layers and unpinned their hair - they had hair - they took a moment to study hero.

they were beautiful. dark curls curtained the most lovely face they had ever seen. bruised and slightly bloodied, but beautiful nontheless.

the villan had spent the next hours waiting for the hero to awaken and perfecting their "come join me" speech. they were determined that the hero wasnt the only one who could be convincing.

they watched the heros warm brown eyes flutter open, slowly at first, then quickly as alarm set it.

"what the fuck?" they cried as they saw their mask cut to shreds on the table infront of them. their head flew side to side in panic until they saw villan. villan felt a sharp pang at how terrified they looked, hopefully the hero would believe that they didn't want to hurt them.

"its your turn to listen to me now hero. im offering you..."

"shut up"

"excuse me? your my captive you can't..."

"shut up. your not convincing." hero sounded exhausted.

"you haven't even heard me out!" villan shrieked.

"you won't convince me, i've already convinced myself"

"convinced yourself?? convinced yourself of what?" villan watched heros exhausted expression contort in anger.

"i have saved every life in this city from you countless times. i have lied and manipulated and tricked into being allowed to save lives. i have given years of my life to protecting them from you. and you know what they did to me. i walked in this morning, and before i could even get a word in they were on me. beating me, kicking me, restraining me. they wore noise cancelling headphones so i couldn't even beg them to stop. couldn't even ask what was going on." hero broke of for a moment, breathing hard, villan reached out to comfort them instinctively, hero flinched and brushed them of, "you know this, you can see my face, me, they beat me black and blue, they betrayed me, they handed me to you, you, no doubt thinking id face torture or death or something. i saved their lives just for them to sacrafice mine. so no you don't need to convince me to join you. i'm convinced. i guess they actually convinced me more than anything." heros laugh was a hollow joyless thing that left villan horrified. hero, their hero, looked so small and broken. they were small and broken.

"i'm going to kill them, for what they did to you, would you like to join me?" villan stood, holding out their hand to hero.

a small smile lit up heros face as they took the villans hand, "i wanna burn it all to the ground".

and it was so pretty whilst it burned.

[yaldev]

The Team

The Septumvirate’s funding would cover three full-time employees for Decadin.

Renne. Mechanical engineer. The first friend Decadin made at Exodus. Strong in body and will. Could’ve done this whole project himself if his immortal soul could imagine anything but rotating shapes and hot girls.

Nemesk. Aethereal engineer. Decadin’s study partner in Fluid Dynamics 2 and Magic Manufacturing Processes. Advanced proficiency in numbers. Working knowledge of the Ascended language.

Miash. Musician. The only one Decadin had never met. Miash got an interview because Decadin wanted to know why a music student was applying for this role. He showed Miash one of the blueprints and he immediately picked at the visual design elements that made it clumsy to read. Then he started theorizing about the impact this creation would have on urban air quality. Five minutes later, he was gushing to an attentive Decadin about pre-National polyphonic folk singing, and he was hired.

Lhusel. Mechanical engineer. Flying machine specialist. She said this was volunteering, and Decadin left it that that.

Decadin brought the vision, the organization, the logistics and the diplomatic warfare capabilities against their source of funding. Together, they were going to build a miracle.

- - -

A crystal bug was standing half-upright on a work table, a whirlpool of energy around its mouth, vibrant colors swirling in its transparent body. Some larger animals were watching it eat, but for now they posed no threat.

“You have a point.” Decadin nodded. “Even our best measurement tools aren’t too accurate.”

“And humans are insensitive to ambient mana levels,” said Miash, “but for dirtclouds, it’s their whole survival strategy.”

A few other crystal bugs wriggled about in a paperboard box. Decadin took a pair of metal tongs on the table, picked up one of the glassworms and leaned back in his seat.

“If I had to pick a favorite animal, it’d be these.” He smirked and watched it try to squirm out of the tongs. “I started in biology, thought I could make a mark there. We still know so little about nature, and crystal bugs are packed with mystery.”

Miash grinned. “I almost went into bio.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. But I had to pursue what I wanted deep down.”

Decadin turned his wrist, flipped the bug over. “Music?”

“Art, all of it, but music’s what came naturally.”

“That’s awesome. If you’re ever performing I’d love to come see. Certain the others would too.”

Miash blushed, unused to anyone caring for long. This was a formality, he had to change the subject. “So why’d you transfer out of bio?”

“Eh.” Decadin dropped the bug back in the box.

- - -

Decadin knocked on the door with his free hand.

From the other side: “Yes?”

He stepped in. The machine shop was dark, just couple of Levilights™ where Nemesk was hunched over a work table.

“Hey. I brought another tool that might help.” Decadin set a bowl of stew by Nemesk’s elbow.

“Oh.” Nemesk bent back up, looked over his shoulder. “Did not ask you to do this.”

“No, but Lhusel and I made extra, and it only made sense to keep some hot for you.” Decadin smiled, then looked at the blueprints. “How’s it coming?”

“Bad.” Nemesk dropped his pen. “Too much to fit on a reasonable size. Magic can’t fix it all.”

Decadin bent over to take a look himself. The sketches were hectic, eraser marks obvious. “What if it wasn’t a reasonable size?”

“We have the money?”

“Probably not.”

Nemesk huffed, rested his forehead against his hand. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

Decadin frowned. He thought of losing Nemesk from the project, or as a friend, and adrenaline shot in his body. “Why?”

Nemesk’s other hand traced along the table as he spoke, as though building a model of his greivances. “No certainties. Assume things for the calculations, will need lots of testing, but no time. Still don’t know where getting parts. And barely below budget, right? If this doesn’t work, there’s nothing to show, and might be my fault. Or everything will get pulled if they found out Lhusel was working on it.”

Decadin patted his shoulder. “Stand up, you need a hug.”

“Uh?” Nemesk stood, and when Decadin pulled him in, he needed a second to process before he put his hands on the stewbringer’s back.

“You feel this?” Decadin murmured, “we’re here.”

“I know.”

“But we get so tied up in the math we forget we’re just bodies and souls.” Sensing the tension in Nemesk, Decadin pulled back to look him in the face.

“Yeah,” said Nemesk, hardly able to meet his gaze, “but much else I can’t be sure about.”

Decadin breathed in. “I’ve been there. You know what helped me?”

“What?”

“This, all of this, is a machine.” Decadin let him go. “Some parts move by themselves, some are invisible, but it’s all pieces of a system. It all makes sense when we get some hindsight, right?”

“Not help.” Nemesk frowned. “No good machine we can’t work out from the start.”

“Is there more on your mind than you’re telling me?”

Nemesk still wouldn’t meet his eyes. Decadin grimmaced.

“You think you need some sleep? You can have your dinner and go if you want.”

Nemesk sat down. “I’ll have it as break, but if I don’t do this now, just moved to later.”

“Your call.” Decadin smiled. “Can I give one more tip?”

“Mhm,” Nemesk hummed through a mouthful of stew.

Decadin opened a drawer built into the right side of the table, took out a jar of orange liquid. “If you can’t get rid of uncertainty, make it work for you.”

“What you mean?”

He set the jar on the table. “It’s mana. I think I only got through my second year because I kept it on my desk and it randomly gave me answers.”

“But the jar stops any effects from leaking, right? Too dangerous if no.”

“Yeah, for all we know it doesn’t actually do anything. But call it superstition.”

Nemesk smirked. “So now going to use mana to help us get rid of mana?”

“Hey, why not?”

“Well if we need it for good ideas, what we do after it’s gone?”

Decadin laughed.

- - -

Decadin stayed home one afternoon. He was going to spend all day crunching numbers, and he figured it was good for teambuilding when the others could vent to each other in his absence.

Aether dynamics was hard. It was fluid dynamics but also multi-dimensional parabolic geometry and also applied mathematical theology. It demanded so many parts of his brain that the proofs always took Decadin hours, and treading new ground felt impossible. How was he supposed to work out the most sustainable mechanism to repel mana back into the Aether? His only hope was a second jar of mana he bought for himself, purple this time. When he needed a break he’d pace around his room, bauble in hand, shaking it, swirling it and watching it settle with post-deterministic patterns.

The chaos wasn’t helping this time. Nemesk was right: if these jars actually changed anything outside the glass, the orange one would’ve burned down the whole academy by now. If they were ever useful it was for prompting new questions, but this time there were none to find. Decadin slumped back into his chair, double-checked an equation. It wasn’t even close to true if the variables were what he thought they were. He stared at the liquid magic in the jar, tapped it with his fingers, and then gave it a spin. He looked back at the paper. Back at the jar. Half the mana was gone.

Decadin gasped. Concepts neglected since first year started crashing into each other. He jotted a couple notes about centrifugal force, lept from his seat, grabbed the jar and sprinted off to tell Nemesk.

- - -

“You’re asking for more?”

“I had no plans to come up here and request a reduction,” said Decadin. Back on the platform. Back in the spotlight. Back in front of the Septumvirate. One of the members was replaced since last time, and the new voice was especially skeptical.

“Don’t bother giving us some fluffed-up story of all the progress you’re making. Your supervisor’s confirmed that you’ve yet to build a functioning prototype.”

“My case is that even if we fail, we’ll have made incredible discoveries in the process. Our work also supports future projects with similar aims.”

Another voice chimed in: “‘Incredible discoveries’ isn’t very specific.”

Decadin raised his chin. “We found a direct association between mana repulsion and centrifugal force in holding materials.”

Silence for a moment, until the first voice returned. “When was this?”

“Last night. We were all so excited I forgot to sleep.”

A third voice laughed, then a fourth spoke: “I respect your dedication, but it hasn’t brought results.”

“The materials we need are… scarce. As soon as we get the funds for delivery, you’ll get your results. There’s no waste here, I’m covering the holy ink we’ll need out of pocket.”

“We’ll consider it.”

-----------------

Yaldev is a sci-fantasy worldbuilding project by Ulysses Maurer, with art by Beeple. By looking at narratives, stylized loredumps, bad poetry and little details, we'll witness the story of a planet filled with magical power, the nation which tried to conquer it, this empire’s dramatic collapse and the new world which emerged in its wake. Along the way we'll meet the characters who live here, and we'll explore questions about nationalism, rationalism, the natural world and the quest to master it. For all stories in chronological order, check out the pinned posts at r/Yaldev!

[paleodictyoptera]

Okay this is not the main villain. Main villain is Thaddius Blakk, an incredibly top heavy, sickly white angulature of a man whose main evil powers are environmental destruction, extortion of vulnerable communities, and making a booming industry out of selling Juice From Hell (darkwater) that fucks up the wildlife but makes your slugs more dangerous and feral and therefore more "useful" for slugslinging.

I drank deep from the waters of Slugterra (not the darkwater), for I had the privilege of watching the episodes as they aired. It's a functionally dead IP by now, though there's a mobile game still being updated if I recall. Go check it out, though you will need to suspend your disbelief for the first episode in order to get into it. My man gets the news of his father dying at age twelve, and he's just chill for 4 years until he's sixteen (he promised Dad he would wait till then) in order to launch himself 100 miles into the depths of the Earth and continue the Shane family legacy of being the Ultimate Peacekeepers of the 99 Caverns.

Spoilers under the cut

We never see his mother. He mentions the Shane family numerous times over the course of the series, often using them as a cover for his weird surface culture, but I have seen literally the whole main show, and he maybe mentions his mom *once*. What did this woman have to endure, losing both her husband and her only son?! And he never comes back! He stays down there! And this is the good ending!?!

Sorry, my few greivances with Slugterra are showing. Go watch Slugterra if you haven't yet, it's a very almost-western that has the party travel the caverns of a subterranean microcosm of beauty and diversity, with major themes of restoring the balance of nature and committing taboo acts in the name of bringing justice to the world. Easily had a profound impact on worldview and beliefs.

OHHH MY GOD okay since you're like the only one i know do you know about that show that had slugs in it, and they would like, weaponize them kinda like pokemon. and the main protagonist had a blue and orange slug (main blue body, orange striping down the sides). i could have sworn it was called Slugterra but nothing is coming up for me.

It actually is called that! So a search engine is lying to you!

This came out far too late to be part of my childhood or teens and the show aired during the limbo period where I didn't have TV, but nor did I have internet fast enough to frivolously stream any old cartoon show just for background noise or anything, so I have no idea what it was like.

Villain has a great design, what an excellent shape for a guy!

[radwolf76]

Sometimes, One of the Nice Things About the Holiday Season is Extended Families Coming Together to Spend Time With Each Other

[manda-kat]

Look, friend. If everyone's done with dealing with you then it sounds like that isn't a case of them being 'assholes' then. It sounds like you might be the one who caused some of these problems. And if you're too afraid to show your face and actually solve the problem then bringing it up in ways that keeps anyone from helping you does nothing but spread anger and pain.

All you're doing is lashing out against people who can't do anything to help you because you won't give them any information other than vague stabs at guilt.

This isn't helpful to you or anyone else. It seems you have some bitterness built up, but this is an unhealthy way to deal with it. First, show who you are and then tell people what your actual problem is.

If they don't want to deal with you that's their choice. Nobody should have to hear someone out who isn't willing to give the benefit of the doubt and just barges in with accusations and inflamatory remarks. But if you make that choice for them, hiding your face while you fling these rotten asks at people, then you should just be blocked and your comments forgotten because this kind of thing is only harmful to the mental health of you and everyone involved.

I am not going to work through your issues with you. I don't have the emotional bandwith. So figure yourself out and make your choice to either bring up your greivances with the people you're actually upset with or leave them be and move on with your life. You can't have this halfway method of keeping your face hidden while airing your frustrations. Leave the bad faith at the door and deal with it like an adult.

[plutoandpolaris]

u g h

[runthepockets]

"Duhhh Jared why are you singling out white trans women"

1) because you all have the biggest platform of any demographic in the trans community. This doesn't discount your marginalization, nor is it exclusive to trans women, but understand how much dumb, narcissistic, white woman bullshit I have to see from y'all on a daily basis as a black trans dude because of this.

2) I genuinely think a lot of you transition and think that's the end of it. Because you guys are women now, you think you can never do anything wrong, and anyone who disagrees is a transmisogynist or something. You all sound like the white cis women I dated as a teenager who insisted they were big strong tough girls until I told them to stop being dicks to me and take accountability, to which they immediately ran to cry "misogyny misogyny, I'm just a poor widdle baby girl, you have to treat me like a special princess or I'll shit." and I don't talk to those girls anymore for the same reasons. I don't want to put you all down and avoid you, I don't want to generalize other trans people, but y'all sure as shit are not making it easy.

3) Cis women this too, but again, I'm not in community with them as often, and I've already aired enough greivances with them to last me a lifetime: white women play just as big of a role in upholding white supremacy as white men, idc what anyone says. Those tears and that fragility I mentioned above? That shit gets people killed. It's a weapon. You need to watch your fucking ass and think about who the fuck you're talking to sometimes, idc how traumatic your childhood was or how much you got bullied in school, we're all transgender here, get it together bitch.

4) If you talk the leftist talk I expect you to walk the walk, too. Odds are you're going to meet a lot of nonwhite trans people who won't hesitate to knock you on your ass when y'all say and do the stupid shit y'all do, especially other, nonwhite trans women, who arguably have to take more of your shit than I do on top of everything else going on. Again, I'm trying to do y'all a favor, not be hostile for no reason. Lmfao.

5) I'm sorry but I'm tired of people acting like (white) trans people are an untouchable demographic to criticize. It's not me who's rolling back your rights to HRT or kicking y'all out of your houses or calling y'all slurs in the streets, so I really don't see how me criticizing y'all's entitlement and fragility is "transphobic" in any capacity. It's my community too, I deserve to have space and not be treated like shit for it. A lot of you (rightfully) call out trans men for ignoring your needs as women and how a lot of them make you uncomfortable with their blantant transmisogyny, but a lot of you don't even have the balls or the know how to grow the fuck up when a trans person of color tells you to acknowledge your privilege. Again, typical white girl shit, but ig cus a lot of you are trans you think you don't benefit from the intersections of whiteness and womanhood, which is crazy and just plain stupid.

There's a post on Twitter that says something along the lines of "if a black person tells you you're being racist, that means they're trying to preserve the friendship." I wish I could screw this into the head of every white trans chick who hasn't reckoned with her white fragility yet.

[party-gilmore]

When we talk about hitter romance novelist Quinn and QWAT AU at the same time I always picture him like the counselor in 10 Things I Hate About You, like, everyone coming to him during the Ice Man Job to air their Hardison Greivances while Quinn is actively, casually working on his hard-core smut novella from the other side of the desk.

[someguyiguess]

why are people asking you about your grievances with them?? did i miss something?

it's one of the great traditions of Festivus: the airing of the greivances! read about it here